Okay, firstly I like Sandra Bullock anyway, but do admit she is not often lost in her characters and plays herself. She often plays slightly socially awkward characters however, she's believable, every-girl, and relatable and necessarily not too contrived especially in a storyline where you have to believe its happening and get involved.
Bullock is a computer analyst/programmer who works from home and gets sent a disk by a friend to look at. This disk causes problems which she has to work out during which she has to go on the run, her identity is erased. Angela Bennett is no more. It's scary stuff, and would have been more so back in the 90s when much of this was fairly new - it's very true that all our personal information is on computer so we all are vulnerable.
Sandra plays increasing desperation well, and the story unravels rather than unfolds, and is quite emotional in places - especially those including her mother with Alzeimer's. Jeremy Northam, Brit actor, and rather dishy, plays the antagonist, and plays it well. Being so attractive, his nefarious ways are even worse, and as all her safety is stripped away, he's always there to make her run again. I like that the programming scenes don't have silly graphics (see Hackers) but are clear key/screen clicks and code being typed and this is one of the most realistic of the many hacker films that came out in the 90s.
This has aged well, except some of the technology of course, and it's still relevant. It is interesting to see technology changes ie the ease and normalcy of tracing mobile phones now for example. Note the policeman reading the Miranda rights off a piece of paper - was this filmed around the time they had changed? Historically interesting watching it (again) now, in 2013. A good, entertaining film in a similar vein as The Pelican Brief - intelligent writing and not predictable.
Bullock is a computer analyst/programmer who works from home and gets sent a disk by a friend to look at. This disk causes problems which she has to work out during which she has to go on the run, her identity is erased. Angela Bennett is no more. It's scary stuff, and would have been more so back in the 90s when much of this was fairly new - it's very true that all our personal information is on computer so we all are vulnerable.
Sandra plays increasing desperation well, and the story unravels rather than unfolds, and is quite emotional in places - especially those including her mother with Alzeimer's. Jeremy Northam, Brit actor, and rather dishy, plays the antagonist, and plays it well. Being so attractive, his nefarious ways are even worse, and as all her safety is stripped away, he's always there to make her run again. I like that the programming scenes don't have silly graphics (see Hackers) but are clear key/screen clicks and code being typed and this is one of the most realistic of the many hacker films that came out in the 90s.
This has aged well, except some of the technology of course, and it's still relevant. It is interesting to see technology changes ie the ease and normalcy of tracing mobile phones now for example. Note the policeman reading the Miranda rights off a piece of paper - was this filmed around the time they had changed? Historically interesting watching it (again) now, in 2013. A good, entertaining film in a similar vein as The Pelican Brief - intelligent writing and not predictable.